Company’s Act

Company Act

The Parliament of India defines Company Act as a statutory law which; regulates formation of a company, its rules/association with members/directors & its dissolution. In India, it was first passed in the year 1913 with the acceptance of the Companies bill, but being older to more than 50 years it was later amended to Company’s Act 1956.

Covering a century score, In September 2013 the Company Act 1956 was recommended to get replaced by Company Act 2013 because of its inability to define new ventures and limited applicability of old definitions. It was proposed to get effected from 1 st April 2014 with the consent of President, adding 37 new definitions and more than 180 sections to the previous act.

The Company’s act 2013 is the present rule book to all companies getting registered as an economical unit after 1st April 2014. Working in force it is promoting self-regulation and following new concepts of business including one-person, small and dormant company formats, corporate social responsibility, investor protection, restrictions by National Financial Reporting Authority.

How to register a company?

While applying for a new company registration under Company Act 2013, government has made it mandatory for every applicant to get its company registered firstly by Registrar of Companies of the State , following certain essential pre-registration requirements including applying for a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) and a Director Identity Number(DIN)

Getting a Director Identification Number(DIN) : For every director associated with the company, an application to MCA (Ministry of Corporate affairs) on their online portal Mca.gov.in is to be submitted with a “DIN e-form” to obtain their individual DIN numbers , which is further required as a subsidiary document in company registration.

Getting a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC): Digital signatures are required for detailing out authenticity of the documents being submitted by the applicant to government during company registration. These signatures can be taken from a Chattered Accountant/Company Secretary/Advocate or any other approved certification agency. DSC is used as a declaration made by a registered professional towards company while submitting Form-32.

Submitting SPICe (Simplified Per forma for Incorporating Company electronically) forms for Registration:

For Substituting multiple form procedure of company registration, MCA has changed their way to a single per forma, mandating their new “SPICe” forms which are self equipped with all declarations required for registering a new company. SPICe-Form 32 has replaced the old Form-29 and is used for incorporating Public Company, Private Company, OPC (One person company), Section 8 and Producer companies, categorizing them according to their capital and liability.

Form-32 is downloadable from the official MCA website, the applicant need to download and fill in all the details required by the form about the company and its members including DIN and DSC details and have to submit it online with Form-33 (SPICe MOA) and Form 34 (SPICe AOA) for specifying company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association.

Other documents required for SPICe Form-32 Submission:

Memorandum of Association – Mandatory to be submitted in case of Sector 8 companies

Articles of Association – Mandatory to be submitted in case of Sector 8 companies

Conclusive proof of office address

Proof of identity and residential address of the subscribers and directors

Affidavit and declaration by first subscriber(s) and director(s)

Trademark details (if already applied for )

After submission of these forms and all the other required proofs, MCA will list the application further for approval and will send a confirmation mail to the applicant whenever the status of application changes from pending to approved, making the company a legal entity. To download all forms click here

Why is Company better than any other form?

Company to a great extent defines more powers to directors and other associated members, works in a free environment of getting easy finance and inclusion of more investment from outside sources, also it enjoys certain special benefits driven time to time by government especially for company bases. Companies are more feasible in the sense:

Credibility : Company form enjoys more credit-ability and confidence from investors as compared to other forms due to its simplified Company law compliance’s which further helps it to get better interactivity with Income tax and other laws .

Existence: Company proves the thought “members may come members may go but business continue to exist” . Other than old partnerships, this feature makes the company form, more adaptable to present business structures to grow with time.

Ownership: Company format, works better in transfer-ability of ownership especially the public company as it does not require any long formalities like LLPs for transferring one’s share to other.